


Vibe Check!

by eelegy



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/F, Yvesoul are a comedy couple change my mind, awkward roommates to less-awkward roommates, not my alphabet soup prompt. sorry!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29948688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eelegy/pseuds/eelegy
Summary: Jinsoul and Sooyoung are forced into the same apartment due to Covid. Jinsoul is just trying to be a good roommate. Sooyoung thinks her vibes are rancid.a.k.a. think about how awkward it would be if you had to room with someone who hated your guts as a profession.
Relationships: Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul
Comments: 5
Kudos: 79





	Vibe Check!

**Author's Note:**

> So long story short, I got inspired by someone else's Alphabet Soup prompt, but it turns out lovebalance just posted their fic for this prompt a few weeks ago, so here's a [Link](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28772859)! It's fantastic!

“What?!” Jinsoul exclaims into her phone, drawing the attention of another hiker on the trail, “I'm fired?”

“I'm sorry, Jinsoul.” To be fair, her supervisor did indeed sound very sorry. “But with the campus shut down, there's no way I can ask for the budget to keep research assistants employed. You'll be the first to know if the situation changes.”

“Well,” Jinsoul steps off the trail and sits down on a fallen tree trunk, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

“I'm sorry again, I wish I had better news.” Her supervisor bids her a farewell and Jinsoul is left with the phone pressed to her ear long after she had hung up.

Jinsoul lets the hand holding her phone fall to her lap, staring hopelessly into the woods. Of all times to lose her job...and one that accommodates her schedule too. With zero income and no reason to be near campus anymore, she brings her phone back up. It's helpfully still unlocked, and she enters a search query:

“Craigslist apartments”

* * *

Sooyoung sighs and looks at her bank statement again. Living alone so far downtown was no longer feasible, and the reward and patrol payments from the Monster Hunter Guild of Seoul were stretching thin--just like everyone else, the supernatural were self-isolating, and the guild had shut down the regular patrols. She glances at her statement again before sighing and pulling her phone out of her back pocket.

“Okay Google, search Craigslist roommates.”

* * *

Sooyoung has to admit that, out of every roommate she's ever had, Jinsoul is the most gracious. She does her dishes immediately after eating and is far tidier than Sooyoung, folding the throw blanket neatly over the comfy chair’s armrest when she's done with it. She even brought her own vacuum to the apartment--far better than the dinky little Dirt Devil Sooyoung had made do with since college.

And they get along well, too! Sooyoung can come off, admittedly, a little abrasive at first. She's sure she said some snippy things to Jinsoul the first week when she was adjusting to a new person in her space, but Jinsoul hadn't let that affect her happy-go-lucky disposition. Which was good, since they’d have to be around each other 24/7.

And yet, despite all this, Sooyoung can't stand being around Jinsoul. She feels like an asshole, hating her roommate for no reason, but, to quote junior monster hunter Hyejoo, “the vibes are rancid.”

Maybe it's the sheer amount of rare beef Jinsoul eats on a weekly basis, the smell of which, at first appetizing, had quickly become nauseating. Sooyoung genuinely doesn't know where all that food goes. Jinsoul's insane workout routine, which she does, distractingly, on their living room floor every evening, can only be half the answer. Jinsoul is constantly munching on something, and no matter how many burpees she does, Sooyoung doesn't buy that it can negate the four packs of Oscar Meyer weiners Jinsoul consumes per week. (Gross.)

Or maybe it's the nocturnal schedule. Sooyoung had always been early to bed, early to rise, trained into her by dear childhood friend and functional human Jungeun. Maybe it's closed minded of her to associate late risers with laziness, but sue her. The sun rises for a reason, and that reason is work. There are so many things that can only be done in the day, after all. And she's tired of popping her head out of her room to ask Jinsoul to use headphones while watching Netflix in the living room after 2am.

Or maybe it's how stupidly pretty Jinsoul is. Is it possible to be so gorgeous you don't pass a vibe check? Maybe so.

Whatever the reason, Jinsoul was not passing Sooyoung’s vibe check, and that sucks severely since lockdown had trapped them in the same flat.

* * *

Jinsoul tries to be as agreeable as possible when she moves in. After all, the virus isn’t in either of their control, and it sucks equally for the both of them. Of course there are growing pains when both of them are so used to living alone. Her second morning in her new apartment, Jinsoul stumbles out of her bedroom (and Sooyoung’s old office/gym) to be met with the sight of Sooyoung humming to herself in only her underwear while emptying the dish rack. She stops in her tracks and dutifully turns her back--they hadn’t had the sexuality talk and Jinsoul isn’t about to perv on her gracious new roommate--but her foot catches on a squeaky floorboard and startles Sooyoung, who screams and embeds a fork in the doorframe next to Jinsoul’s head.

“Holy shit” Jinsoul isn’t sure what else to say when your roommate is inches from murdering you with cutlery you just ate questionable takeout with the night before. She shakily grabs the fork by the handle and tries to wrench it out of the frame. “ _Jesus_ it’s in there good,” she tries to joke as she continues to wrestle with the fork, her sweaty palms not helping her grip. Sooyoung is bright red and still very, very underdressed. Jinsoul still isn’t in the business of looking at a woman, especially not her brand new roommate, with any sort of disrespect. But her brain is so boggled at the near death experience that she snaps, “Could you put on some clothes?” rather rudely at Sooyoung, who, still red, just nods and disappears into her room, door shutting loudly behind her in the silent apartment. Jinsoul stares after her, regretting her tone. There goes any hope of a good first week. She gives up on getting the fork out and fetches a tupperware of leftovers to eat in her room.

* * *

Sooyoung is trying especially hard not to think about her roommate seeing her as good as naked. How humiliating! At least Jinsoul seemed too shaken to really process her near-murder. She'd come up with a few excuses for her deadly cutlery throwing, including a stint in the circus (what?) and a young adult obsession with the hunger games series (mildly concerning?), but she much prefers Jinsoul ignoring what transpired.

The next week, Sooyoung leaves her room mid-afternoon for a break from work to find Jinsoul carefully fixing the fork holes in the door frame with filler putty. _Oh._ She is a really good roommate. She feels the beginnings of guilt over the way her skin crawls when Jinsoul is around. Maybe it’s just her true crime podcast kick making her suspicious of any stranger. (Still, one of the podcaster’s voices reminds her, bad vibes are bad vibes. GTFO if you can, and _FUCK_ politeness!)

Or not. It's Corona season and Sooyoung had watched in real time a few weeks before when potential roommates were drying up faster than a Swiffer drying up its own wet jet, or Bounty towels lifting tomato sauce off of a pristine kitchen counter. She shakes her head, vowing to install ad block since commercials were clearly brainwashing her, then she clears her throat to announce her presence.

Jinsoul’s ears perk up in the strangest way. It's as if they almost swivel around at the sound Sooyoung makes. But they _couldn't_ have. And before Sooyoung can think any more of it, Jinsoul spins around, a smudge of white house paint streaked across her cheek. “Hey, Sooyoung,” Jinsoul greets, waving with her paintbrush, luckily not flinging any paint anywhere. She tries to lean on the door frame, but her hand lands in the wet paint. She winces and wipes it on her pants, which leads Sooyoung to look down at her outfit.

Jinsoul is wearing the same baggy gray sweatpants she had been wearing for the past week, now with a white hand print on them, among the other stains. But Sooyoung is more interested in her shirt. “You a Twilight fan?” Sooyoung had known quite a few fans back in high school. She remembers one of the more passionate fans being militantly anti-monster hunters. Oh, that would make things so awkward during quarantine. Sooyoung wonders if Jinsoul would her for her job.

Jinsoul looks confused at the question before Sooyoung points at her shirt. Jinsoul looks down with an “Oh yeah. Uh,” she scratches her head just behind her ear and Sooyoung sees the almost imperceptible twitching on her leg muscle. “I was really into it in high school. It’s just a pajama shirt now, though.” Jinsoul grins awkwardly. “What about you? You never really struck me as someone who was into it.”

Sooyoung shakes her head. “I wasn’t.” She pauses for a second and adds, guiltily, “I just realized I didn’t really know anything about you other than what you said at the interview.” She crosses to the fridge and pulls out the rest of her protein shake so Jinsoul can’t see her awkward cringing as she suggests, “Why don’t we eat dinner tonight and actually get to know one another?” Sooyoung prays she does not sound like a loser.

“Sure! That sounds great.” Jinsoul is immediately down for the plan, and Sooyoung tries not to sag against the fridge in relief. Her fragile pride would survive another day. “Should I cook?”

Oh. Jinsoul’s an angel and Soooyoung feels worse and worse with every squirming minute she does not want to be around her. Seriously! What is wrong with her!? This girl hadn’t done anything bad to her except make the same steak just about every day for dinner, which is gross, sure, but not a crime.

* * *

Jinsoul isn't stupid. She knows Sooyoung dislikes her, but she cannot for the life of her figure out _why._

She’s been nothing but nice, and she’s made extra care to pick up after herself and clean her dishes. She even cleans Sooyoung’s hair off the shower walls, even though the feeling of wet hair makes her skin crawl. And yet, there’s a distinct restlessness to the way Sooyoung interacts with her that reminds her of Jungeun in the few weeks immediately after they broke up, but Jungeun had not yet moved out. That was especially rough, since they’d broken up halfway through a season of Grey’s Anatomy, and Jinsoul didn’t know the etiquette around finishing the show without Jungeun.

Anyway, Jungeun had left with the 3rd disc of the next season, and Jinsoul never found out whether that was her being mean or an honest mistake.

* * *

Sooyoung comes back from her socially distanced run with Hyejoo to find a pale, gaunt Jinsoul on the couch. Her instinctual reaction is ‘Ew, Corona,’ before she remembers to be a good person and actually ask, “What’s wrong?”

Jinsoul groans, rolling over. “All I wanted was a sausage McMuffin…” she laments. She sounds so pitiful that it cannot just be about the breakfast sandwich. “I don’t know...maybe I ordered wrong...there’s no sausage...” She gestures with a limp hand at the coffee table, where a depressing, sausageless mcmuffin lies open on its wrapper.

Sooyoung almost laughs at how it’s really just a bun with a kraft single on it. Her supervisor, Haseul, would go crazy over that. Sooyoung never really understood her fixation on processed cheese. But more immediately, she’s concerned by the way Jinsoul oozes off the couch, shuffling pathetically over to the fridge to grab a hot dog. She doesn’t even bother with the bun, just biting into the cold, wet _thing._ Sooyoung shudders. Something is deeply wrong with her roommate, beyond the obvious illness. However, she is nothing if not considerate (though in hindsight, her ex may have told her that sarcastically.) Still, she shucks off her coat and throws it over the back of the couch and turns to her roommate. “Anything I can do?”

Jinsoul is leaning heavily on the counter like it’s the only thing keeping her upright. “Actually,” She shifts, looking very uncomfortable, “I have an order at the butcher’s counter at the store I’m not sure I’m in shape to pick up. It’s a couple pounds. I feel bad, but…” She trails off, gesturing to herself. “They’re not gonna let me in looking this sick.”

Sooyoung nods, somewhat eager to prove that she is not, in fact, a terrible roommate, even if she’s the only one who knows about her judgements of Jinsoul. A clear conscience would be nice, and if Jinsoul would stop acting like that cold, plain hot dog was the only thing keeping her in control, that would be fantastic too. “I can pick it up now. I’m already dressed for the weather.”

Jinsoul manages a weak smile, pulling some money out of her hoodie pocket and shuffling over to hand it to Sooyoung. “Thanks so much.” She shuffles off the her room, stopping in her doorway when she remembers she has something else to add. “Oh, I’m planning on chilling in my room for the next few days. Don’t get too concerned. I do this every month.”

Sooyoung nods, distracted as she carefully folds the money into her wallet. She doesn’t think too much of it. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

* * *

It’s only halfway to the store that it hits her. Every month? She takes out her phone to make a quick search, praying her lunar phase timing is out of whack from being benched for so long. She stares at the phrase “Waxing Gibbous” for long enough that an angry driver leans on her horn when Sooyoung able across the street, mind spinning. She jumps, looks up, and throws her middle finger up at the driver, driving down the urge to think of the driver as a “prep.” So what if she read My Immortal once! She had to ingest monster-related content to keep up with the times, as a good portion were written by monsters themselves.

But the waxing gibbous moon...that could be a problem. How was she supposed to know that Jinsoul was a werewolf. A werewolf! Quarantined with a werewolf! She thought it would have been impolite to ask about human status during the interview process, and Jinsoul had checked all the other boxed. Anyway, she was mostly devoid of the scars that marred a lot of the other werewolves she's seen, and she liked cats, as Sooyoung had also seen her padding out of her room at 10am in several different cat shirts. Not to mention the way messiness was one of the main identifying features of werewolves from her studies at the academy. Still, Sooyoung knew without a doubt that Jinsoul was a werewolf.

This led to a brand new train of thought, even more stressful than the first: how was she supposed to broach this topic with Jinsoul?

* * *

“Can you at least tell me if I'm in any danger?” Okay, so Sooyoung could have had a little more tact.

Jinsoul's eyes shoot open wide and she jerks away from Sooyoung even as she takes the butcher’s package. “No way! I would never put anyone in danger!” She furrows her eyebrows, “although, honestly, I'm a little offended you would think I'd do that. Doesn't your ‘organization’ teach you guys anything about non-humans, or are you just trained as-is with your weird stereotypes about us?”

Right, so maybe starting off with “I'm a monster hunter with the guild and you didn't tell me you're a werewolf.” was a bit blunt. Sooyoung feels like a jerk, just watching the way Jinsoul unwraps the meat, leaning heavily on the counter as the pan heats up. “Uh-” She cuts herself off. She has no defense.

Jinsoul almost moans at the sound of hissing as she lays the steak on the hot pan. Sooyoung flushes, unsure of if it’s at the sound or at her own inability to justify her job. When Jinsoul turns back to her, her eyes aren’t quite as hard. “You were taught wrong. And, I guess, since we’re stuck here until the lease runs out, I’m to one who has to teach you better.”

* * *

Sooyoung almost thinks she should be taking notes. Should she be?

Jinsoul has very helpfully set up her laptop on the coffee table as they sit next to one another on the couch. “To be honest, I put this together for relationships. It’s pretty awkward to be really ill or a dog for a week each month when you’re getting serious with someone.” The title slide says, “Oops! You’re Dating a Lycanthrope!”

Sooyoung nods, trying her best to not ask questions until the end, but she does have to ask, “Sick _or_ a dog?”

Jinsoul nods. “Well, yeah. Basically,” She flips a few slides forward, and Sooyoung catches a gif of Jacob Black taking off his shirt on one of she skipped slides. “Yeah. Lycanthropes basically need to turn into dogs once a month, or we get really sick. Like, I’ve been holding off on turning this month because I knew I didn’t want to have the conversation with you given your job,” she pauses, tilting her head, “but I guess it might have just been easier to tell you outright.” She hits the arrow key to bring up a slide with a large stock image of a woman with a stomach ache. “Basically, if I don’t turn, I get super nauseous and dizzy and light sensitive. It’s kinda like the worst hangover you’ve ever had but for a week straight and the only way to mitigate it is rare meat.” She gestures helpfully to her nearly raw steak, which Sooyoung eyes warily. She’s sure it’s probably way more okay for werewolves to eat raw beef, but still.

“That sounds like it sucks.” Sooyoung says just to say something. And it’s true. It does sound like it sucks. And then, because she’s wondering. “What kind of dog?”

“Huh?” Jinsoul asks. Of all questions, Sooyoung knows that’s not the one she was expecting.

She feels dumb now, but she’s curious so she asks again. “Like, what kind of dog do you turn into?”

Jinsoul blinks at her a few times. “Really?” at Sooyoung’s embarrassed nod, she continues. “Oh, okay um. She scratches her head. It’s not quite a _dog_ dog, you know? It’s like a really big wolf, but i figured that would make it seem scarier than it actually is.” She shrugs. “I mean, I still have all my wits about me. I’m still me, just big and fluffy. Actually, arguably, I’m more dangerous if I don’t turn, since I get cranky.”

“So you just,” Sooyoung is trying to make sense of this. “Turn into a huge dog once a month and you’re otherwise perfectly fine?”

Jinsoul nods. “Exactly.”

Sooyoung blinks a few times, processing. Finally she goes, “Oh, I feel like such an asshole. I’m quitting my job.”

Jinsoul laughs out loud at that. “I mean, aren’t they also just straight up not paying you because you can’t patrol?”

Sooyoung sighs heavily. “Yeah. Now that I look at it, it’s kind of the worst workplace ever.” She flops back against the couch cushions. “You know anyone hiring for jobs requiring athletic skills?”

Jinsoul huffs a laugh. “God, I wish I knew anyone hiring at all.” She leans back to join Sooyoung, turning her head to look at her. “God. Look at us.”

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/folklorbit)!


End file.
